La justice et l’histoire

Abstract

Historians take a keen interest in the trials of the major Nazi criminals. Firstly because they are part of history. Two of them, the major Nuremberg trials and that of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem are constantly referred to and have been the origin of new legal standards, concepts and stereotypes. The historians’ role therein has been negligible.It is essential to distinguish two types of justice which apply to the actors of history. A transitional form of justice which is part of the means enabling the transition from a state of war to one of peace and the (re)construction of a harmonious ‘living together’, whether it be between States after a war between nations, or living together in the same state after a civil war. Thus the Nuremberg trials are now part of the history of international law and of the implementation of a new international order after World War Two. Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela were instrumental in setting up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which is an innovation in rendering justice – a method which has spread throughout the world.As we move further away from the events in time, the conditions for establishing the truth by judges change and their work becomes increasingly comparable to that of historians. In Nuremberg, it was not necessary to recall the atmosphere of a war; it was in everyone’s thoughts and omni-present in the devastated landscape of the town. This explains the resort to historians and to archives since there are sometimes no more witnesses.

Keywords

• crime against humanity
• genocide
• Eichmann
• Nuremberg
• nazism